Superpower crime

Back to the present.

After a short nap in his bedroom, Chen Xiao was woken by Mahiru Shiina and shuffled into the living room for dinner.

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"Wow..."

The table of food, tantalizing in color, aroma, and flavor, instantly perked him up. He swallowed instinctively.

Having two master chefs like Mahiru Shiina and Asuna waiting on him was already spoiling his palate. If his Food Wars! figures came to life in the future too, anything he ate outside would probably taste like cardboard.

"Here, Xiao~ Give this a try."

Mahiru Shiina picked up a piece of fried shrimp and brought it to Chen Xiao's lips, her eyes filled with nothing but him.

"Ah..."

Naturally, Chen Xiao could not resist being fed by the girl. He opened his mouth and ate the fried shrimp.

Oh no, I really am going to be spoiled helpless...

After feeding him a few more bites, Mahiru Shiina stopped while she was ahead and turned on the television for him.

[Breaking news] Magic City Central Hospital received another patient suffering from an unexplained coma at 4:30 this afternoon. This is the fifteenth such unusual case this month.

The unconscious patients were reportedly all young adults aged twenty to twenty-five who lived alone. They were taken to hospital after neighbors discovered that they had been unconscious for an extended period. In addition, there were no signs of a struggle in their homes, nor was any property missing...

"Regarding the recent string of mysterious comas among young people in our city, police and hospital authorities have ruled out illness or viral infection as a cause. Preliminary suspicions suggest a possible connection to the superpower crimes that have become increasingly frequent in recent years."

The female reporter on television spoke with a grave expression.

"We would like to remind all residents, especially young people living alone, to keep their doors and windows locked at night. If you notice anything unusual about your physical condition, please contact the police immediately..."

"There's been more and more news like this lately..."

Watching the report on television, Mahiru Shiina sighed with worry.

An ordinary person's chances of successfully resisting an attack by someone with supernatural powers were about the same as defeating a Siberian tiger with a sliding tackle.

Chen Xiao nodded at her words.

"Back when the authorities did everything they could to cover it up, exposing the existence of superpowers to the public was incredibly risky. That was why some people might go their entire lives without showing what made them different."

Otherwise, he would not have had to wait until university to discover that this world was not an ordinary urban setting, but a goddamn urban supernatural one!

My entire worldview shattered three times! Three times!

"But now that governments around the world have openly announced the existence of supernatural powers, they've effectively removed the sword of Damocles hanging over those people's heads..."

For Shenzhou, this was not entirely a bad thing.

For one thing, when the authorities first announced the existence of superpowers, people had emerged to post videos demonstrating their abilities. Apart from the government personnel mixed in among them to steer things in a positive direction, most had previously been ordinary, law-abiding citizens.

They had simply kept their secrets bottled up for too long.

As a result, crime had virtually vanished across Shenzhou for a while. After all, anyone looking to cause trouble now had to consider whether the good Samaritan standing opposite them might be some hidden master.

You could spend years practicing sanda, only for your opponent to throw a fireball the moment the fight began.

Hilarious. There's no blocking that. (Despair)

In stark contrast to Shenzhou stood the Alabachia Federation across the ocean. Its superhero initiative, jointly launched by several corporate giants, had caused the Federation's already high crime rate to double several times over.

The main problem was that some corporate boss had apparently lost his mind and decided to recruit superheroes according to superhero comic conventions, even splitting them into two categories: heroes and antiheroes.

The former at least seemed noble and righteous on the surface.

The latter, however, were nothing more than villains being whitewashed, following the old routine of committing murder and arson before being welcomed into the establishment.

And somehow, there were still people who thought that stuff was cool...

Incidentally, ever since the Federation's corporate giants had introduced the antihero category, all sorts of superpower crimes had begun cropping up in Shenzhou. It was hard not to suspect something shady behind it.

After all, the big Western power in Chen Xiao's previous life had behaved exactly the same way!

"How could they do that...?"

Still, she's cute even when she's angry~

Seeing the "angel" brimming with righteous indignation, Chen Xiao's lips twitched. In the end, he decided not to reveal the deeper darkness behind it all.

Although this world had no particular corpse collector or deep diver returned from abroad to open everyone's eyes, practically anyone capable of bypassing the internet firewall to see the outside world had already had their rosy illusions shattered by the explosion of superpower crime videos from the Federation over the past few years. No number of magazines from their childhood could put those illusions back together.

After all, most ordinary people in Shenzhou made videos for laughs. The stuff next door looked like the lower levels of a hive city corrupted by Chaos...

There's no humanity left! (Grief)

"The discussions online are more detailed than the formulaic news reports, especially when it comes to the attacker's motives..."

Chen Xiao set his phone on the table and opened the comments under a trending topic about the crimes in Magic City.

Most of the highly liked comments wished the patients well or expressed anger and concern over future superpower crimes.

Of course, there was no shortage of humanoid accounts making snide comments, either.

Among the popular comments were lengthy deductions by online sleuths, who had worked out the attacker's target demographic from the information on those dozen or so victims.

"That's horrible! The people who fell into comas... they're all students who'll be admitted to Nova Academy this year!"

Mahiru Shiina's eyes widened.

"This isn't just ordinary crime... these are clearly premeditated attacks!"

"Exactly. We don't know what conspiracy might be behind it, but what the attacker's doing is a blatant provocation against Shenzhou's authorities. I'm sure that fool will soon be brought to his knees by their iron fist."

After all, the authorities needed to make an example of someone.

And someone had already volunteered to be that example.

"Then... you won't be in danger, will you, Xiao? You technically live alone too, and you're the right age."

Suddenly thinking of something, Mahiru Shiina turned and gently hugged Chen Xiao's arm, her voice full of worry.

"Hahahaha... of course not! I'm not even attending school. What does Nova Academy have to do with an ordinary citizen like me?"

Laughing heartily, Chen Xiao looked just like an old general onstage, with doom flags planted all over his back.

Downtown Magic City, the Superpower Crime Task Force office at the Anomalous Incident Management Bureau.

Although the official agencies and positions dealing with superpowers had not been established for long, their personnel were mostly elite staff selected from various departments, with a few superpowered "temps" among them.

Their adjustment period had been astonishingly short. The department had become fully operational almost as soon as it was established.

Thus, even in this small office, the atmosphere during meetings was far better than the lax, disorderly gatherings of the Federation's superheroes.

"Public outrage online has escalated severely over the past few days. The bureau director has therefore ordered our task force to apprehend the perpetrator within one week and give the people of Shenzhou an answer."

Liu Yaowen, the task force leader seated at the head of the table, spoke first.

"I have a question, chief. We don't know anything about the enemy right now. How are we supposed to catch the perpetrator?"

Team member Li Rongbin raised his hand and asked.

"There's no connection between where those dozen or so victims lived. Even figuring out where to start investigating is a major problem."

Another team member, Lin Feng, agreed.

"I understand all that. With our current capabilities, it really is difficult to find any information on the perpetrator, even with personnel and technical support from Magic City's armed police unit."

After hearing them out, Liu Yaowen did not reprimand either man. Instead, he nodded slightly, then rose as he spoke and walked solemnly toward the office's front door.

"That's why the director has brought in someone from the capital to help us. She'll also be joining us as a colleague."

Someone to help?

The team members exchanged glances.

"Please come in, Lieutenant Colonel Huang Qingque."

As soon as Liu Yaowen finished speaking, a black-haired woman in practical, smart attire pushed open the door and entered. She stood ramrod straight, radiating a brisk, capable air. Upon entering, she saluted Liu Yaowen first, then everyone else.

"Oh..."

Influenced by her military bearing, everyone instinctively stood and saluted her as well.

"Hahahaha... no need to be so formal, Lieutenant Colonel Huang Qingque. This isn't the army."

Liu Yaowen laughed and clapped his hands.

He was delighted to see that she had made such a good first impression on his team.

That would make it easier for everyone to get along in the future.

Liu Yaowen then showed Huang Qingque to her seat and handed her the report on the recent unidentified attacks against multiple Nova Academy students, though they had yet to enroll.

Yet Huang Qingque merely skimmed the report before saying with absolute certainty:

"I know where that person is."

"What?!" × N

At her words, even Liu Yaowen, who had prepared himself beforehand, nearly lost his composure, let alone the other members of the task force.